Wednesday, March 21, 2012

Political Digest for March 21, 2012

The Old Jarhead Blog: Bringing you news and information the MSM is too busy covering American Idol, celebrity affairs and sensational missing person cases to cover. Please forward to friends who need to be informed.

I’ll post this before the Illinois Primary results are in, but will include commentary the following day. ~Bob.

Excerpt: Romney has changed his focus in recent days, talking less about the delegate math and focusing more on broad themes. Speaking at the University of Chicago on Monday, he used words from Milton Friedman, the school’s famous right-wing economist, to argue that government stands in the way of a strong economy. “Freedom is becoming the victim of unbounded government appetite — and so is economic growth, job growth, and wage growth,” Romney said in the speech. “As government takes more and more, there is less and less incentive to take risk, to invest, to innovate, and to hire.” (I wonder if they ever described Keynes as a, “famous left-wing economist.” ~Bob.)

Excerpt: But he speculates that Illinois’s economic devastation (the state is 48th in job creation and has the eighth-highest unemployment rate in the nation) might explain why Romney is doing better here than he did in Ohio and Michigan, whose economic situations aren’t quite as dire. And Romney has grown as a candidate. “I think his message has gotten better as the campaign’s gone on,” Brady says.

We attended the St. Patrick’s Day parade in Madison, Wisconsin, where they are in a hot fever to make the state model the fiscal and economic disaster of Illinois by recalling Governor Walker. Kathleen Falk, the leading statist hope to replace Walker, was in the parade with a band of supporters, and led by a large banner for AFSCME, the government employees union. She is inordinately proud to be a wholly-owned subsidiary of the government unions. Any taxpayer who votes for her should drop a signed, blank check to AFSCME into the ballot box with his vote, thus saving everyone time o the coming looting.

Excerpt: Race is just one of the areas in which the rhetoric and the reality often go in opposite directions. Political rhetoric is intended to do one thing -- win votes. Whether the policies that accompany that rhetoric make people better off or worse off is far less of a concern to politicians, if any concern at all.

Excerpt: In two House primaries in Illinois, the opponents believe they are fighting to determine the future of their respective parties. There are more-immediate consequences at stake, too: Illinois was one of the few states where Democrats controlled the redistricting process. Their plans to capitalize on that (while defending just one open seat) depend on the candidates that emerge from Tuesday’s primaries.

Rep. Paul Ryan: If you agree it’s morally wrong to ignore the most predictable crisis in U.S. history, this is your budget. (Let me get my hands on the budget and you’d think Ryan was a liberal! ~Bob.)

Excerpt: House Republicans will roll out a fiscal 2013 budget on Tuesday that will slash tax rates for both corporations and individuals, setting a marker for future negotiations with Democrats on taxes and other fiscal matters. The plan from House Budget Committee Chairman Paul Ryan (R-Wis.) would collapse the current system of six tax brackets for individuals into two marginal rates: 10 percent and 25 percent, according to GOP aides. The proposal would also lower the top corporate tax rate to 25 percent, and scrap the Alternative Minimum Tax.

Excerpt: The good news: Ryan’s budget is even bolder and more specific than last year’s. It’s also better than last year’s, especially because of a couple of tweaks on Medicare reform. In addition, it preserves a reasonable level of defense spending by reforming entitlements, rather than gutting defense, as Obama does, in order to put off tough choices on entitlements.

Excerpt: President Barack Obama blamed Fox News for his political woes in a private meeting with labor leaders in 2010, saying he was “losing white males” who tune into the cable outlet and “hear Obama is a Muslim 24/7,” according to journalist David Corn’s new book, “Showdown.” (He must listen to Fox a lot more than me. I never heard them say he was a Muslim once. ~Bob.)

Excerpt: President Barack Obama's 13-year-old daughter, Malia Ann Obama, will be spending her spring break in the Mexican city of Oaxaca with 12 friends and 25 Secret Service agents. The young tourists will be in a downtown hotel in the city known for its colonial architecture and native traditions, reported a state police official. (I wonder where 13-year-old kids of the 99% are spending Spring Break? I thought there was a recession and a deficit? Silly me. ~Bob.)

Excerpt: Federal agencies spent at least $945 million on contracts for advertising services in fiscal year 2010, and that sum doesn't include all public communications expenditures in the agencies reviewed or even all of the executive branch, a congressional report out last week shows. Congressional Research Service reported that the calculation was incomplete since the total sum may never be fully known.

Excerpt: Missiles fired from the sea have slammed into al-Qaeda positions in the southern Yemeni city of Zinjibar, killing at least 16 suspected militants, a local official says. He said the heavy shelling began overnight, targeting the northeastern suburbs of Zinjibar, which jihadists have controlled since May following fierce fighting with government troops.

Excerpt: Ken Livingstone has promised to turn London into a “beacon” for the words of the Prophet Mohammed in a sermon at one of the capital’s most controversial mosques. Mr Livingstone, Labour’s candidate for mayor of London, pledged to “educate the mass of Londoners” in Islam, saying: “That will help to cement our city as a beacon that demonstrates the meaning of the words of the Prophet.” Mr Livingstone described Mohammed’s words in his last sermon as “an agenda for all humanity.” (Will the city assist in hanging gays, stoning teen rape victims for adultery and banning girls from school? ~Bob.)

Monday's shooting attack in Toulouse, France stands as a reminder that Jews face terrorist threats anywhere in the world, recently retired Israeli counterterror chief Nitzal Nuriel warns. At least four people were killed – three of them children – when a helmeted gunman hopped off a moped and opened fire outside a Jewish school in Toulouse Monday morning. A man fitting a similar description killed three soldiers in separate attacks in the region last week.

Excerpt: Talk about a vicious cycle. The above chart (from must-read healthcare blogger Avik Roy) comes as close as anything I’ve seen to explaining in a picture what is wrong with the American healthcare system. It shows how government policy creates a dysfunctional healthcare market by insulating consumers from the true cost of their healthcare decisions, raising demand/overconsumption of high-end services/costs, prompting more government intervention (like Obamacare) … and more insulation.

Excerpt: A heavily subsidized solar company received a U.S. taxpayer loan guarantee to sell solar panels to itself. First Solar is the company. The subsidy came from the Export-Import Bank, which President Obama and Harry Reid are currently fighting to extend and expand. The underlying issue is how Obama's insistence on green-energy subsidies and export subsidies manifests itself as rank corporate welfare.

Excerpt: Perhaps the most audacious plea came from West Side Democratic elected officials who urged voters to support an Illinois House member charged with bribery. It looks bad, they acknowledged, but it will prevent the seat from falling into the hands of Republicans. The rally in support of appointed state Rep. Derrick Smith (D-Chicago) featured U.S. Rep. Danny Davis (D-Ill.), three aldermen and a county commissioner and even adopted a catchy moniker: “No defeat or retreat — keep the Dem seat.” (Their attitude is, “There but for the grace of not getting caught yet, go I.” ~Bob.)

Excerpt: I am not saying no one is in dire straits, but the fact is—recession aside—more people in the United States have greater access to more affordable and superior goods than ever before. Even if the 1 percent have a larger share of total income in the United States than at some previous time, total income is far greater. The 99 percent’s absolute amount is also far greater.

Excerpt: Now, sudden subsidy cuts here and elsewhere in Europe have thrown the industry into crisis just short of its ultimate goal: a price to generate solar energy that is no higher than fossil-fuel counterparts. (On to Algae! ~Bob.)

Excerpt: Call me old-fashioned and a soft-touch, but I loved the 17-minute “The Road We’ve Traveled” campaign ad that the Obama campaign released last week. It is narrated by actor Tom Hanks and produced by Oscar-winning director Davis Guggenheim, who also did An Inconvenient Truth. The ad is obviously a gauzy, 100-percent pro-Obama view of the last four years, but it offers people inclined to vote for President Obama a reason to do so, and provides some food for thought for the undecided voters who will determine this election.

The last two paragraphs of this short article are especially telling. Ron P. Excerpt: The Iranian blasts are seemingly more dramatic, and probably part of the ongoing campaign being waged against the installations of the Revolutionary Guards Corps, especially, but not solely, those connected to the nuclear weapons project. One of the blasts took place at Zarin Dasht, once the site of a Russian mill, now an important component of the military/industrial complex of the country, where missile fuel and warheads for missiles are manufactured. As is often the case, much of the complex is underground, which is where the explosion took place.

Excerpt: A day after an attack outside a Jewish school here killed a rabbi and three young children, the French authorities offered fresh details on Tuesday of an assault that has stunned the nation and terrorized the city, saying the lone gunman seemed to be filming his actions as he coolly shot his victims to death. … The suspect pursued his last victim, an 8-year-old girl, into the concrete courtyard, seizing and stopping her by her hair, said Ms. Yardeni, who viewed surveillance footage of the killing. His gun appeared to jam at that point, Ms. Yardeni said. Still holding the girl, the killer then changed weapons, from what police identified as a 9-millimeter pistol to the .45-caliber. He shot her in the head and left, never removing his motorcycle helmet. (I’d be stunned to find that the gunman was not a member of “The Religion of Peace”? Or has the daily litany of Allahmurders made me Islamophobic? ~Bob.)

One in Five Young British Muslims Supports 'Honour' Violence - Sarah O'Grady, Express.co.uk

Excerpt: More than two thirds (69 per cent) of Asians aged 16 to 34 say communities should live according to “honour” or “izzat”. Nearly one in five – 18 per cent – said certain acts thought to shame families were justification for violence. The possible reasons included disobeying a father, marrying someone unacceptable or wanting to end a marriage.

Excerpt: But a human rights group offered a more complex vision of the insurgents on Tuesday, accusing them of a catalog of abuses including “kidnapping, detention and torture of security force members, government supporters and people identified as members of pro-government militias, called shabiha.” (Wait, I thought the insurgents were the brave freedom fighters praised by the media? ~Bob.)

Excerpt: Gunmen in western Mexico have killed 12 policemen investigating the beheadings of 10 people. The officers were attacked as they searched for bodies after severed heads were found near the town of Teloloapan in Guerrero state on Sunday. (The question is not if, but when this violence will come here with our flood of illegal colonizers. ~Bob.)

Excerpt: “You can go back 500 years. You cannot find a more audacious plan. Never knowing for certain. We never had more than a 48 percent probability that he was there,” Biden said at a fundraiser in Morris Township, N.J. “Do any one of you have a doubt that if that raid failed that this guy would be a one-term president?” Biden asked. (Wow. More audacious than D-Day? More audacious than Washington crossing the Delaware? No, Joe. What I think is that had the plan failed, the higher probability is that we would have never heard about it if everyone came home safe, but if it failed and WAS made public, bin Laden's name would have never been mentioned. We would have been told that the raid was a failed attempt to capture or kill a high-level al Qaeda operative. But thanks for clarifying that it wasn't about getting rid of bin Laden, it was about getting Obama re-elected. MasterGuns)

Excerpt: KUWAIT CITY, March 5: US troops opened fire on a boat carrying six Iranians near Kuwait’s territorial waters, a source told Al-Shahed daily, adding four Iranians were killed, one was wounded and another was reported missing. According to the source, the Iranian boat approached a prohibited area that was under the control of US Navy and refused to obey orders. (Notice the date this was published. Today is 20 March 2012. This is the first time I’ve heard of it. How about you? The low-intensity war Iran is waging on us just keeps going like the Energizer bunny. Ron P. Probably classified as “workplace violence.” ~Bob.)

The excerpt is from Ken Haapala’s summary. Ron P. Excerpt: Science magazine contained an article advocating global governance titled “Navigating the Anthropocene: Improving Earth System Governance.” As the push for Rio +20 Earth Summit, UN Conference on Sustainable Development, June 20 – 22, 2012, continues, it is becoming obvious that the goal of many international politicians, including many scientists, is global governance by a body of unelected persons. Note the misleading phrase, Earth System Governance. The effort will be governance of human behavior, not physical earth systems.

Excerpt: Back when he agreed to advise the Obama administration on economics, General Electric CEO Jeff Immelt told friends that he thought it would be good for GE and good for the country. A life-long Republican, Immelt said he believed he could at the very least moderate the president’s distinctly anti-business instincts. That was three years ago; these days Immelt is telling friends something quite different. Sure, GE has managed to feast on federal subsidies, particularly the “green-energy” giveaways that are Obamanomics’ hallmark.

Excerpt: For example, we don’t know how the Iranians would react to an Israeli attack. Direct retaliation against Israel would seem to be the most likely response, but there’s also the possibility that they’ll engage in unconventional means of response. In fact, the posited outcome in this war game, a direct Iranian attack on an American warship strikes me as the least likely possibility of all. Say what you might about the Iranians, but they aren’t stupid, and a direct attack on an American ship in the Persian Gulf or the Straits of Hormuz would likely bring down a rain of fire upon their heads, not just bombing attacks on nuclear facilities, but on other elements of the Iranian military and political infrastructure.

U.S. War Games Simulation Sees Dire Results of an Israeli Attack on Iran - by Mark Mazzetti and Thom Shanker, New York Times

Excerpt: The results of the war game were particularly troubling to Gen. James N. Mattis, who commands all American forces in the Middle East, Persian Gulf and Southwest Asia, according to officials who either participated in the Central Command exercise or who were briefed on the results and spoke on condition of anonymity because of its classified nature. When the exercise had concluded earlier this month, according to the officials, General Mattis told aides that an Israeli first strike would be likely to have dire consequences across the region and for United States forces there.

Excerpt: To have not merely infiltrated the [Irish Republican Army] but to have infiltrated it so completely that, as well as numerous other agents, the Brits got a man to the top of the IRA's internal security unit, demonstrated considerable infiltration success. But it had a striking cost. It meant that in order to protect Stakeknife's cover and advance his reputation and prospects within the IRA , British intelligence allowed a man to torture and kill - and arrange for others to torture and kill - people British intelligence knew to be innocent, including a Belfast pensioner who was killed to protect Stakeknife's cover.

Excerpt: Back when he thought that global warming was a winning concern Obama used to acknowledge that his anti-CO2 policies were going to cause high energy prices (forcing them to “necessarily skyrocket“). Now he is trying to use the high energy prices that he intentionally caused as a reason to get away from fossil energy. But if we are no longer worried about climate, how about just undoing the anti-fossil-fuel policies that drove prices up in the first place? Obama’s silence on climate is a testament to how thoroughly the alarmists have lost the climate debate in the eyes of the voting public. Obama can’t even mention climate. (If you needed any convincing that the administration was fibbing about its responsibility for contributing to the rise in the price of oil, this should provide enough facts to fill a medium-sized book. Of course, since these are facts, not feelings, don’t bother to argue with any liberals about it; they’ll neither understand nor believe anything they can’t feel warm and fuzzy about. Ron P.)

Excerpt: …when asked on "Fox and Friends" Tuesday morning whether she would join a ticket with former Massachusetts Gov. Mitt Romney, should he win the nomination, Rice was less than enthusiastic. She said running for office was "not her strong suit," and she was confident the GOP would "find the right person." "I think we should go another direction and find somebody who really wants to be in elected office," she said, adding, "How many ways can I say it? Not me." (I don’t think she brings any votes to the ticket, though I admire her even when I disagree with her. ~Bob.)

Excerpt: "Hindu radicals enjoy political protection," Dajan George said. "They feel so strong that they fabricate charges to harass the Christian community. In order to satisfy nationalist feelings, police arrest innocent Christians without a fair trial."

Excerpt: The National Debt has now increased more during President Obama's three years and two months in office than it did during 8 years of the George W. Bush presidency. The Debt rose $4.899 trillion during the two terms of the Bush presidency. It has now gone up $4.939 trillion since President Obama took office.

Excerpt: After the defaults, critics smugly laughed at Citibank’s former chairman, Walter Wriston, for having pronounced, “Countries don’t go bankrupt.”[3] It was indeed a foolish thing to say, going down in financial lore with gems like the 1929 predictions of permanently high stock prices and the more recent idea that house prices would never fall. Yet a mere generation later, twenty-first-century economists, financial actors, and regulators blithely talked of the “risk-free debt” of governments and the “risk-free” interest rate.

Excerpt: Much has been written about the ongoing “war against terrorism”. We have all heard the phrase, the clash of civilizations and have been spoon fed the idealistic expectations of the architects of these two campaigns, one in Iraq and the other in Afghanistan for ten years. Periodic sit-reps (situation reports) have been delivered by Politicians and General Grade Officers alike and even the retired community of hopeful sycophantic, legacy building idealists have not been able to contain their zeal to delve into the world of fantasy and declare our misadventures as humane.

Excerpt: While Romney would be hard-pressed to claim blue-collar status, that doesn't mean he is unfamiliar with hard work. It also doesn't mean he can't relate to people who are lower in the economic spectrum. To imply this in any way does a disservice to all of us and our abilities to empathize and put ourselves in the shoes of others. Unlike Rick and Newt, who harp on Mitt's wealth and inability to connect with average folks, Mitt hasn't once imputed anything similar to Santorum or Gingrich, who are both educated and wealthy enough to be considered card-carrying members of the 1%.

Excerpt: Rushdie, who addressed a packed hall that greeted him with frequent applause, spoke out strongly against "public apathy", against violence and intolerance of cultural freedom, saying: "Freedom is not absolute, if you don't defend it, you lose it....If you give in to the threat of violence, there won't be less violence, there will be more."

Worth Reading: The consensus wants you. All of you. If it cannot have you, it will have your children or your grandchildren. by Daniel Greenfield

Excerpt: While terms like “The Marketplace of Ideas” are still tossed about occasionally like confetti out of a tenth story window, they mean about as much as the soiled mass of tape that everyone has stepped on by the time the parade is over. The age of ideas, when issues might actually be debated, instead of answered immediately with talking points derived from an inflexible ideology whose only two poles are outrage and guilt, ended some time ago. Today we live in the age of consensus. The cultural elites no longer debate opposing points of view, they dismiss them as racist or ignorant, ridiculing not only the argument, but the arguer and the very premise that there can even be an argument.

Barack Obama, Euro-Socialism, and the 2012 Election - by Steve McCann, American Thinker

Excerpt: Now facing failure and defeat in 2012, Barack Obama and his minions are accelerating the demonization of their political opponents, often in the most vile and false ways possible, and pulling out all the stops in pitting various segments of society against one another regardless of the potential damage inflicted upon the American culture. This desperation by the left and Barack Obama is indicative of the reality that both do not have a clue as to why their socialist/Marxist approach and theory are not and will never be successful, as the primary focus of this ideology has been to manipulate the base nature of mankind to the advantage of its proponents.

Excerpt: Farshid Yazdani, a member of the Association for the Defense of Children’s Rights, has raised the flag on the increasing rate of the marriage of girls under the age of 10 in Iran. He stated that in 2009, 449 girls under the age of 10 were married off. The number increased to 716 cases in 2011. (Liberals call this a lovely example of the richness of multiculturalism. Conservatives call it rape and pedophilia. ~Bob.)

Excerpt: President Barack Obama is about to launch a 5,000-mile, four-state, two-day trip on Air Force One to contain the political damage caused by high gas prices. (At about 20,000 feet, they should set an example for the rest of us and switch Air Force One to algae. ~Bob.)

Excerpt: Pollak Glenn Singleton’s Pacific Education Group (PEG), which bases its school programs on “Systemic Racism” on Derrick Bell’s radical Critical Race Theory, has caused controversy in school districts across the country—at taxpayer expense.

Why DOJ Released the Top Fast and Furious Suspect: President Obama promised Sarah Brady that he was working on gun control "under the radar."

Excerpt: Richard A. Serrano of the Los Angeles Times broke an exclusive story this morning that the Bureau of Alcohol, Tobacco, Firearms and Explosives (ATF) had top Operation Fast and Furious gun smuggler Manuel Fabian Celis-Acosta in custody while he was attempting to smuggle ammunition into Mexico, and made the decision to let him go.

White House Admits it Directed Effort to Scrub Malia Obama Spring Break Story from the Web

Excerpt: Kristina Schake, Communications Director to the First Lady, emails to confirm this was a White House effort: From the beginning of the administration, the White House has asked news outlets not to report on or photograph the Obama children when they are not with their parents and there is no vital news interest. We have reminded outlets of this request in order to protect the privacy and security of these girls. Refraining from photographing the first daughters makes sense, but there appear to be at least three news angles to this story. (Is this about security or protecting Obama from criticism on his spending habits? ~Bob.)

Excerpt: All student health care plans covering female college students in the United States must include coverage for free voluntary sterilization surgery, the Department of Health and Human Services announced late Friday afternoon. Women of college age who do not attend school will also get free sterilization coverage whether they are insured through an employer, their parents, or some form of government-subsidized plan. (Gotta be a spoof. “Sterilize Liberals” sounds like a rightwing campaign slogan! ~Bob.)

Excerpt: Unfunded liabilities for public pensions run by the 50 states total $3.23 trillion -- $21,500 per household. Underfunded pensions for municipal and local government employees add another $574 billion of hidden debt -- $14,000 per household. … For residents of some big cities, the news is much worse. For example, New York City's unfunded pension liabilities alone are nearly $39,000 per household, second only to Chicago at $42,000 per household.

Excerpt: Thank God there are a few people—very few—who are not willing to swallow the government's jobs propaganda hook, line and sinker. This is an election year, so we have every reason to believe that the nonsense we've been fed lately is not going to stop anytime soon. That's not to say that official statistics emanating from the Bureau of Labor Statistics (BLS) are unduly influenced by political considerations. That's not how things work. More on that below.

Excerpt: If you were head of Central Planning (howdy, Ben!) and were tasked with crippling the real estate market, here’s what you would recommend.1. Choke the market and banking sector with zombie banks.

Excerpt: Surely it's time for climate-change deniers to have their opinions forcibly tattooed on their bodies. Not necessarily on the forehead; I'm a reasonable man. Just something along their arm or across their chest so their grandchildren could say, ''Really? You were one of the ones who tried to stop the world doing something? And why exactly was that, granddad?'' (Come and try, Fascist scum! ~Bob.)

White House says Trayvon Martin, the teen killed by neighborhood watchman, is local issue

Excerpt: For 37 years, the identity of a young man beaten to death in a carport in Long Beach remained a mystery. Not only did detectives not know who the assailant was, but they were never able to identify the victim, found naked and dead on Spring Street near the 605 Freeway on Nov. 10, 1974. … Stuart's deserter status will now be changed to an honorable discharge. The Marine Corps is planning a full honor guard funeral at his grave. His John Doe marker will be replaced with a headstone.

Stimulus Dollars Disproportionately Went to States Represented by Dems by Lachlan Markay

Excerpt: According to a new report on President Obama’s stimulus package and its effect on the economy, the amount of stimulus money that went to each state was correlated with the number of Democrats in each state’s congressional delegation. (So? It’s The Chicago way. ~Bob.)

Excerpt: At 19, Justin Pulliam was named the "most dangerous man on campus" by the New York Times. "I thought it was clever," Justin, now 22, said. He paused for a beat and grinned. "But true." … He had no idea that one year later he'd have a profile in the New York Times, a live interview on MSNBC, and a reputation as a tough, principled conservative activist and student leader.